Dylan Tate is taking the biggest business trip of his young life this week when he travels to Glendale, Ariz.
The Major League Baseball Draft was held July 13-14 in Atlanta. Tate, 21, a Eureka High graduate (2022), was the 11th round draft choice (345th overall) of the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. As of July 21, the Dodgers are 58-42 and in first place in the National League West.
The Dodgers and Chicago White Sox hold spring training at the Camel Back Ranch in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix. The ranch is described by mlb.com as a state-of-the-art baseball facility covering 141 acres.
“I woke up that day and had an idea I could be drafted,” said Tate on Monday in between workouts at the ACE Training Facility in Chesterfield. “I had my phone on me at all times. It slowly happened and I got the call that they were interested.”
After receiving the call, Tate, a 6-0, 194-pound righthander, said he watched himself get drafted on mlb.com.
“This is a team that was interested in me from the beginning, and I’ve had many talks with them,” Tate said. “Their farm system is the best in the world and that’s exciting for me and my future.”
Tate almost didn’t have a future in baseball after having Tommy John elbow surgery after his junior year at Eureka. Two years passed before Tate was able to take the mound again. He was a starter for Jefferson College, making 11 appearances, totaling 57 and 2/3 innings, 63 strikeouts and just 18 walks with a 3.90 earned run average.
That led to the University of Oklahoma, where he was again sidelined by a serious injury. During his junior year, he missed the regular season with an injury to the humerus bone in his pitching arm. Tate didn’t get on the mound for the Sooners until May 22 in the Southeastern Conference quarterfinals against Vanderbilt.
OU lost 6-1 but Tate was its best pitcher that day after he faced four batters, striking out one and walking another. The Commodores were ranked No. 1 in the NCAA.
Tate was a reliever for OU in the NCAA Regionals against the University of North Carolina. One of seven Sooner pitchers that day, Tate was again their top arm, pitching four innings, striking out five and allowing four hits and one run in a 14-4 loss that ended OU’s season with a record of 38-22.
If Tate makes the decision to sign with the Dodgers, he forfeits his eligibility to return to OU. According to Bleacher Report, 11 percent of players drafted between rounds 11 and 20 end up playing in the Major Leagues.
The Dodgers’ Rookie League players play in the Arizona Complex League at the Ranch. Low A players report to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes in the California League. High A players are sent to the Great Lakes Loons in Midlands, Mich. While not out of the realm, it’s less likely that Tate would start in AA in the Texas League with the Tulsa Drillers or AAA in the Pacific Coast League with the Oklahoma City Dodgers.
“Money’s always a factor but it’s what each of them can do for me,” Tate said of either the Dodgers or Sooners.
“I credit a lot to what I’ve become to OU and what (Sooner head coach) Skip Johnson has done for me. This isn’t an easy decision to make. If I don’t sign, I can go back and help them win.
After he was drafted, Tate said he was at the center of a big party with family and friends at his parents’ house in Pacific.
“It was awesome seeing my family and friends and old teammates from high school. I’ve got a lot of second families through baseball.”
“Whatever the team wants in that moment. That’s where I want to be and nothing’s going to stop me from getting there.”
Tate’s fastball got him noticed. Right now, he averages 94 mph with a top speed of 97.
“You set up your pitches. The difference between a first rounder and 20th rounder is how they command their arsenal. There’s so many factors and a lot of it is having scouting reports on hitters. Ultimately, your best pitch is the one you have the most confidence in.”
Post 177 shut out twice in district tournament
Starting the 2025 summer campaign with a lot of new faces, Eureka Post 177 American Legion baseball manager Noah Baker knew there would be plenty of ups and downs but also progress and promise for the future.
Eureka finished the season July 10 with a record of 11-13-1, however, Baker felt that his young club made some positive strides along the way.
“That’s kind of the story of the season,” Baker said. “We had so many new guys coming into the varsity level of baseball, and most games we were missing one factor, whether it’s defense, hitting or baserunning, I think that’s pretty common for such a young team still adjusting to that older level of baseball. I would have liked to have seen us fire on all cylinders a lot more, but that’s just how it is some years. Luckily, a lot of these guys are going be coming back next year.”
Post 177 started the season red hot, winning seven of its first nine games, including wins over Chesterfield Post 556 (15-5) on May 27, Festus Post 253 on June 3 (6-4), Kirkwood Post 156 (6-1) on June 9 and a 3-0 victory over Ballwin Post 611 on June 11.
“I think they were just really excited to come out (and play),” Baker said. “Our guys were fired up to play and we had a couple of guys coming back from their freshman year of college, and a lot of the young guys were watching them and kind of emulating everything they were doing.”
Baker credited Brayden Westover, Northwest High graduate Thomas Werner and Greyson Maurer with leading the Eureka hitting during the season.
Trevor Schmidt, Brady Nenninger and Brett Barnett led the pitching staff with their work on the bump.
“It was a lot of fun to coach all three of those guys,” Baker said.
In the middle part of the season, Eureka struggled to find consistency as Post 177 traveled to Terre Haute, Ind. for the Johnny Bailey Tournament on the weekend of July 20. Eureka tied Crawfordsville, Ind. 4-4 to start the tournament on July 19, but then lost three straight games to Madison, Ind. Post 8 (13-6 and 6-4) and to Terre Haute, Ind. Post 346 (4-3).
“The last couple of years we’ve been going to Terre Haute, and we see great competition out there every year, and for lack of a better term, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Baker said.
“After we had that early-season success, we had a couple of guys go on vacation here and there, and then guys were playing out of position during that time, and it made things a little bit tougher because the confidence out in the field changes a little.”
Despite losing to Kirkwood (6-5) on July 1, and Manchester (4-2) on July 2, Eureka ended the regular season on an up note thanks to a rousing 9-3 win over District 10 rival Ballwin.
That set the stage for Post 177 to try to make a run in the District 10 tournament at the Ballwin Athletic Association.
Unfortunately, it was a brief stay for Eureka, as Post 177 got blasted by Ballwin 11-0 on July 9 in the first round and then had their season ended on July 10, suffering a 5-0 shutout at the hands of Kirkwood.
It was a rough end for Eureka, which managed just five hits in the tournament as the Post 177 bats fell silent.
“The bats just kind of disappeared, and I think the playoff pressure kind of came, and a lot of our guys weren’t making adjustments or changing things when we were facing adversity,” Baker said.
Although the season ended on a flat note, Baker does believe that Eureka will be primed for bigger success in 2026.
“There’s a lot of competitive athletes that are trying to come up (from juniors) and do some damage at the varsity level, and I know they’re probably going to want to flip the script and try to create a legacy for themselves that’s a little bit different than what played out in 2025,” Baker said.
Schmidt and Maurer will lead the returners for Post 177 next season.
There will be one notable absence in the dugout for Eureka in 2026 as Baker is stepping away from the club as manager after five seasons to pursue other interests.
“This is my fifth summer as head coach, and I informed the program that I will be stepping away for at least the foreseeable future, just to give some other guys a chance in this spot, and this will be my last summer for at least a while.”